The server that smiles only when you pay her/ pretty decent All You Can Eat Hot Pot (MaThai Hotpot Restaurant)

It was a cold night so a group of friends and I decided to look for hot pot. After driving through the Richmond area, we saw the sign outside of MaThai Hotpot for All You Can Eat hotpot for $21.95. To be honest, I was not too sure about how the concept of All You Can Eat for hot pots work.  If you think about it, soup fills you up and it's also cheap. By that rationale... you would get full really fast via hotpot, but I learned that there's more to it than that.
    The restaurant itself wasn't big, in total it could probably hold roughly 40 people. When we got in, there were only 2 people working that night and they seemed tired. We quickly got seated and the menu was brought to us. It was confusing at first because there were separate pricing for things (despite it being All You Can Eat). After asking one of the servers, we found out that we had to buy the soup base separately, and the All You Can Eat portion only referred to the things that go in the hot pot (like meat, fish and etc...). Apparently you can get more than one type of soup base (but they cost separately).
   We all decided to get the pork soup base. When the soup base came, there were huge pieces of pork in there. Compared to some other hot pot places I've been to, which adds the soup base using powder, they actually have the real meat in their soup bases. We started to order the things to put into the hot pot (I want to call them condiments, but that just sounds like ketchup... so let's just call them "things we put in hot pot for now).
   We decided to put an order for about 3 of everything to see what we are dealing with. In terms of the selection, there were many to choose from. From meat (lamb, beef, pork, chicken) to fish (shrimp, squid, and assortment of fish balls) to dim sum (such as dumplings, XiaoLong Baos) to things such as deep fried buns, potato cakes, nuggets to fish skin to quail eggs. In terms of vegetables, there was a fairly good selection as well. They also had skewers as well.
   After we put in our order, the first wave of food started coming. The portions were a bit smaller than we expected. 3 orders of meat really amounts to only a few pieces of meat in reality. The vegetables came in buckets, but the other items were similar in the sense that each portion/ order was small. After all of the raw foods came, the fried foods and grilled ones started coming too. The part I loved the best was the fact that the fried and grilled food was freshly cooked (hence why it took longer to come). You can also taste the freshness as it just emerged from the fryer. The food itself tasted pretty good, but it wasn't too special.
   That said, the portions were not too big, so we decided to go for seconds. Then we went for thirds... I think the server looked a bit annoyed with us (but understandably they were under staffed). When it was time for the third round, we decided to get more of everything just so we have enough food to fill us and we don't need to make another round. We ordered about 20 pieces of nuggets (of which only 4 came). By the time the 3rd order came, the server notified us that it's our last call (there was a time limit of 2 hours we can be at the restaurant.
   At that time, my friends and I were getting full.. so we decided to get our bill. It was funny when the server came with our bill, she wrote on there explicitly "+tips". When I got up to go pay her, I saw her smile for the first time in the entire time that we were there. The minimum amount of tips we had to give was 12%.
    Overall, I would say the service was a bit lacking, but it's understandable as they are busy and the food was relatively good. The price, after tips came to about $30 per person, which sounds about right for All You Can Eat Hot Pot. That said, for a meal, that tends to be a bit on the expensive side, so I'm open to come again, but not too often.

Salty but good Chinese Restuarant (Taste Good Wonton Seafood Review)

When it comes to names, this place probably is not the best at being creative. I was with my colleagues for Taiwanfest in our office nearby when someone suggested going to this place for lunch. Location wise, it was not too far from the 100 bus stop at the corner of Marine and Fraser.
   From the outside, the appearance was not very appealing. The sign seemed like too much UV rays hit it and the original red colour of the sign became light red as a result.
By the time we arrived, it was around 12, and when we walked in, there was almost no one in the restaurant. With regards to size, the restaurant was pretty decent. It wasn't very big, but it wasn't small either. They had a room for private functions and just a general dining hall that could easily fit 50 people. That said, the place was kind of crowded. Besides the limited space, the restaurant was clean and tidy.

After we sat down, I started taking a look at the menu. They have put quite a bit of an effort on their menus. It was bounded by a hard cover and the paper was quite nice. The paper had a layer of gloss over it and the pictures of the food in the menu were big. The amount of pictures (like 4 big pictures per page), made the menu feel like a text book. The down side of the menu is that if you are in a rush like we were (some of my colleagues had to rush to a meeting), it was not very practical to flip through the menu.
Besides the menu, I noticed how under staffed they were. There was only one waiter who also acted as a host and a server and busser. We had to wait for a good 10 minutes before our order was taken.
After our order was taken, it was not too long before we got our food. The first dish that came out was the soup. The soup itself tasted pretty good. The only downside that my colleagues noticed was that it was in the cooker for too long and some of the vegetables had a smushy consistency... The bok choy wasn't even green anymore. That said, it was still pretty good.
The next dish that came out was the fried pork (not sure what they called it). The pork itself was not bad and it was fried just right (like it wasn't so greasy like some other Chinese places I've been to that had a layer of oil beneath it...) but it was super salty. After I took a bite into it, the taste reminded me of when I was dragon boating and I got sea water in my mouth. At the moment when I made the expression of saltiness, one of my colleagues said that these dishes were supposed to go with rice. That made sense now. However it was still too salty in my opinion.

   Because we were short on time, we had to quickly finish everything. One of the main thing I noticed about the other dishes were that everything seems to be on the salty side. This is good in the sense that with rice, the saltiness would be more tolerable. The only thing that was flipped was that our rice bowls came after all of the other dishes came. So essentially if you were in a hurry, the effect of the saltiness affected you more without the rice.
  In summary, this place was pretty good. Everything tasted pretty good as it was not too greasy. The price seems to be average too and the place is clean. I think I will be back again.

Remember to ask for no mayo!!! (Donburiya Review)

Donburiya When it comes to how filling a meal is relative to its price, I would say that Japanese rice bowls are close to the top of my list. It was after the Canada Day parade when my friends and I visited Donburiya.
 From the outside, Donburiya doesn't look too big. Looking in the window, you can see a small collection of tables and a cramped ordering counter. The decor is very interesting as they had physical plastic rice bowls hung on the lights near the windows.
Walking in, you will see the menu above the cash register. I must say, when it comes to selection, there aren't that many selections. There are about a handful of selections from the menu that included three options of Ramen, curry, stir fry noodles and five dons(rice bowls). There's a mapo tofu don, teriyaki ton, beef don, kimchi and this other kind (that I don't really know what it is). Even though the options may sound very limited, it is good in a way because in theory, they will be more specialized.
I also noticed that on the menu, the rice bowls also had different sizes that range from small to extra large. There are samples of the bowl sizes on the wall that you can use for reference when ordering. In addition, as a side note, I noticed that almost all of the options have mayo added to the rice bowl. I'm not sure why people add mayo to the rice bowl, but all I know is the mayo goes right to the butt. There's so many calories in a teaspoon of mayo it's one of those things where if you read the nutrition fact after you eat the thing you would get nightmares (if you are health conscious that is).

 When it was my turn to order, I decided to take a large order of teriyaki don and I also asked if I can have one without the mayo. The cashier was very friendly and she informed me that the store is about to close. At this point, my friends and I decided to ask for our meals in to go containers. It was about $8 for a large teriyaki don, and after paying, the cashier handed me a number tag and I waited on the side.
What's interesting to note is that my friend asked for a cup of water (they have water in a counter at the exit, but you need to ask for cups). When my friend asked the cashier for cups, she looked frantically for a second for cup, then she took a two cups that were stacked on top of each other and wiped it and handed it to my friends. Not sure if it was clean or not, but it seemed cleaned.
After about 10 minutes, one of the cashiers came and brought me my teriyaki don. I have to say I really like the service and the respect they have for their customers here.

Because there was about 20 minutes to closing and everyone was starving, we all decided to eat from our take out containers. I must say, the portions were pretty good.
For my chicken teriyaki don, it was just right and there was a fair portion of chicken. The chicken was fresh and the layer of salad beneath it was very good too. The salad really adds some fiber to the mix. The chicken teriyaki don without any greens in it and its lack of fiber is like an episode of constipation waiting to happen.
Overall, I am very satisfied with this place. Not only are the portions good, the price and quality is good too. I would say because the seating is limited, the place is best for take out. I would definitely come back again. 

Looks like an airline meal? (Zephyr Tea House Cafe Richmond Review)

Last night when my friends and I decided to go to the night market, we wanted to get something to eat before we went and a friend suggested this place so we decided to give it a try. For starters, driving into this parking lot is quite a headache. Not only is the parking space limited, the car/traffic was going in all directions it was relatively difficult to find a spot. The location of this place is pretty convenient as it is only a few steps from the Lansdowne Skytrain Station.

 After finally finding parking, my friends and I went in. The interior had a really nice Taiwanese feel to it.  Besides the T-pop playing in the background, the dim lighting really gave the place a bistro/cafe feel to it. There were couches on the sides and tables in the middle with places for people to eat at. I have to admit, the tables in the center were a bit uncomfortable because they were placed too close to each other. 

After we were taken to our seats, the menu was brought to us. The menu didn't have anything too special on it beside the classic things you would find at a Taiwanese Bistro. Things such as spicy chicken, minced pork rice and of course... bubble tea.

I wasn't too sure what to get, at first I looked at the price of the Minced Pork Rice for around $5 and I thought to myself, that's pretty good. However, I was really hungry and the low relative price of the Minced pork rice bowl compared to the other stuff made me wonder how big the portions were. 

 When the server came I asked him what's the difference in price and he told me that the Minced pork rice bowl was something more like an appetizer (I know... Who would eat a rice bowl for an appetizer?!) or for someone who was small. I think they should have sizes on these bowls. After debating for myself for a while I decided to get a Spicy Chicken Combo, while my friends got curry and popcorn chicken combo. 

 The speed that the orders came out was relatively fast, it didn't take more than a few minutes. When it came, the way the meal was placed (with the rice bowl in a separate section, the main entree in another and the appetizers/vegetables in another reminded me of airline meals. Personally, I am a huge aviation fan, so I liked the setup. I think I was too tired that day, and when the waitress brought me the combo I said in surprise that it looks like an airline meal! My friends gave me a funny stare. I guess it depends on whether or not your like airline meals, but I guess my friends didn't and I didn't take into account of people who don't like airline meals, but thankfully the waitress doesn't know English so I didn't offend anyone.

The spicy chicken looked very spicy as you can see the plate covered in chili peppers. Overall, the chicken was very fresh, a bit on the spicy side but I liked it. It was also a bit salty I found. The portions where not too big, and the rice bowl was pretty small. After finishing my meal I was still pretty hungry. 

 I would say that taking into account of the small size of the meal, but the average quality, the price is average. The food is pretty average too, I would come back if I was in the area again (and not driving).

Chicken Soup of Everything Asian (Wok Box Queensborough Landing Review)

Located at Queensborough landing, Wok Box is probably one of the only places around that mixes a bunch of Asian cuisine together. Passing by here numerous times on trips to Wal-mart, I never had the chance to try them out, so after class one day, my friend and I decided to give them a try.
 From the outside, you can tell that it's a Chinese place. However, that wasn't the case when I walked in. The decor sort of has a mix of Asianness. Especially the murals of Buddha on the wall, it sort of give a sense of Thai yet it's not exactly Thai. I think a large part using buddha as decor sort of shows the Asian stereotype.
After taking a minute to look at the decor and digesting the interesting yet museum like aura of the restaurant, I turned to look at the menu. I was very surprised by the menu because not only did they offer Chinese food, they had Indian food (Butter Chicken) too. I can tell that the food here is very westernized. Their selection from each culture in Asia is very limited and they seem to only feature dishes that are common. Dishes such as Kung Pao Chicken and Indian Butter Chicken to name a few.

   What was special was that for takeout orders, the containers that are used are the paper ones that you see in the US. I never seen the takeout containers used here before, so that was pretty special. Everything comes in two sizes, there is the lunch size and the dinner size. Actually, the After debating with myself for a while, I decided to get a Kung Pao Chicken (the noodle version). My friend decided to get the Indian Butter Chicken.
  We waited for about 15 minutes before we got our order. What I really like about this place is that the food is freshly made and not like food courts where the food is already made up and sitting on the counter and waiting for the customer to come. I was very fascinated with the take out boxes, so the cashier asked if I wanted my order in a take out box to which I said yes.
  When the order came, I was pleased with the portion of the food. It was a fair portion compared to the amount that I paid. It was about $10 for the meal, and there is an option to make it a combo for $3.99 more. The combo includes either two spring rolls or a samosa with a fountain drink.
  The Kung Pao chicken tasted pretty fair, however, some of the vegetables such as the sprouted beans tasted raw. I am not sure if they are meant to be raw, but it definitely is something I never had before. The downside with the take out containers is that it is hard to get food out. Also, there is quite abit of sauce with the Kung Pao chicken, when I put in the fork to get out the noodle, the plastic fork bent... Overall the taste was pretty average.
  In summary, the downside with Wok Box is that they do not have a specialization in a specific culture of Asian cuisine. Because of that, the taste wasn't too outstanding, but the price is pretty fair/average.